A comparative analysis of social work services to child-headed households in Moses Kotane Local Municipality

MSW (Child Protection), North-West University, Potchefstroom CampusAccording to the National Action Plan for Orphans and Other Children made Vulnerable by HIV and AIDS in South Africa (2016), child-headed households are an increasing social problem in South Africa. According to section 150 of the Children’s Act 38 of 2005, as well as the Children’s Amendment Act 41 of 2007, children living in child-headed households are regarded as children in need of care and protection. To facilitate a service delivery model that met the needs of child-headed households, the National Department of Social Development developed the National Guidelines for Statutory Services to Child-Headed Households (2010) and the Strategy on Statutory Services to Child-Headed Households (2011). Efforts to use the documents to provide statutory services to these children have shown gaps in the uniformity and standardisation of services rendered to children in these households. Although the Department of Social Development has set guidelines for service delivery to child-headed households, there is no certainty on how successfully these guidelines have been implemented to address the needs of this target group. This situation motivated the researcher to explore the nature of social work services rendered to child-headed households and compare it with the guidelines in order to identify the gaps and to make possible recommendations. The researcher did a document analysis to identify the services provided to child-headed households. A comparative analysis was done against the set guidelines. The researcher used thematic analysis to identify the key services rendered to child-headed households. To analyse the data, the researcher manually arranged qualitative data into identified salientMaster